James Harrison, the Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker, is the symbol of the inevitable clash between N.F.L. owners and players over the direction of pro football in the 21st century. The rash of fines for dangerous hits this season reflects the league’s conundrum as it attempts to make a violent game safer — without removing the violence. Increasingly, players who have remained silent and played the role of good soldiers are calling out the league for what they see as its hypocrisy.

Harrison has become the lightning rod for resistance. On Thursday, after being fined $25,000 for his hit on Buffalo Bills quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick, he said that he would not be moved. He told the Steelers’ Web site: “The way I play, there is nothing wrong with it. I am not playing dirty. I am not doing anything that is outside of the lines.”

Finally, a player making a stand.

“They are taking absurd amounts of money from me for plays that I consider to be clean, legal hits,” said Harrison, who will appeal the fine. “I am not going to change the way I play.”

To his credit, Harrison defiantly continues to use the intimidating style that has allowed him to make his mark as an elite player. But this season he has been fined four times for a total of $125,000. The other fines were $75,000 for a helmet hit on Browns wide receiver Mohamed Massaquoi, $20,000 for a helmet-to-the-back hit on Saints quarterback Drew Brees and $5,000 for a hit on Titans quarterback Vince Young.

Harrison should not shed his intimidating style, and the Steelers should pay his fines. Indeed, earlier in the season Coach Mike Tomlin told his players in no uncertain terms not to let the N.F.L.’s campaign against dangerous hits deter aggressive play.

Harrison has not. He is enjoying a season worthy of a defensive most valuable player: 2 interceptions, 6 forced fumbles and 10 sacks. The fines have muddied his achievements.

Terrell Suggs, the three-time Pro Bowler for the Baltimore Ravens , suggested Thursday that Harrison was being singled out. “Referees are kind of looking for him to see if he breathes on the quarterback wrong,” Suggs said. “I think there is definitely some injustice.”

Ultimately, though, Harrison will have to surrender to the N.F.L. or continue to put his team in jeopardy as it steams toward the playoffs. During his regular spot Tuesday on Sirius NFL Radio, Tomlin said that the N.F.L.’s insistence on strictly enforcing dangerous hits meant Harrison would need to alter his tackling style. “Obviously he does because the league doesn’t agree with him,” Tomlin said.

But where does the game — and a player like Harrison — go from here? Defensive players who are more physical than skilled, who have used intimidation more than finesse to make their mark, will have to adjust to this diluted style.

Asante Samuel, the veteran Philadelphia Eagles cornerback, said he had considered retiring after his contract expired. In a recent game against the Giants, Samuel was flagged for a helmet-to-helmet hit on receiver Derek Hagan. Had he made that play a year ago, Samuel would have made ESPN’s “SportsCenter.” Instead he earned a penalty and was fined $40,000.

Photo

James Harrision has 10 sacks this season and has been fined $125,000.Credit
Karl Walter/Getty Images

“I don’t know what to say about these rules,” Samuel said. “I think I might have to give it up after my contract is up. I don’t know what to do. Do I go low and break the guy’s leg? If I try to hit him any other way but what I did, I’d end up hurting myself.”

Earlier in that game Samuel witnessed a horrifying scene. A teammate, Ellis Hobbs, was injured while returning a kickoff — an unpenalized helmet-to-helmet hit — and left the field on a stretcher. Samuel wondered — and so should everyone else — how the N.F.L. can make such a production out of penalizing dangerous hits while it is pushing the players union to agree to adding two games to the regular season.

“They want to add more games to the season and you see these guys with these injuries,” Samuel said. “I don’t know what to say about it. It blows my mind. How can you want to add more games?”

The N.F.L. is in a precarious position. For decades the league has gotten away with failing to monitor long-term player safety and has not been held accountable. Now, with study after study indicting the league’s unchecked violence, the N.F.L. is bending over backward to reduce the threat of injuries.

The league’s quandary is that this brand of violence is what makes the N.F.L. unique. Millions of fans embrace it. The N.F.L.’s games are the ultimate cathartic experience: large, fast people colliding with one another every 40 seconds. Removing the blood and guts from its product, the N.F.L. is opening the door for another sport, say soccer, to reign supreme in the United States.

Far-fetched? Who would have thought that boxing and horse racing, which once helped define the American character, would one day be barely relevant to the sports landscape. Who would have thought in the 1950s that pro football would replace baseball in popularity.

N.F.L. players, game officials and fans are confused. “We don’t know what the league wants,” Steelers receiver Hines Ward told The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. He repeated Samuel’s concerns about the league’s apparent contradictions over safety.

“Say one thing, and do another,” Ward said. “Talk about safety, but you add two games. Talk about you don’t want players to drink, but our major endorsement is Coors Light. That’s all you see is beer commercials.

“If they’re worried about concussions,” Ward said, the league should “mandate each player has a new helmet; they don’t do that.”

“You say you don’t want us to gamble, but you have spread games online,” he added.

The N.F.L. spokesman Greg Aiello said: “We have great respect for Terrell, Asante, and Hines, and certainly they are entitled to their opinions, but we respectfully and strongly disagree. We are going to continue to enforce our existing player safety rules and look for more ways to make the game safer.”

DeMaurice Smith, the executive director of the players union, said it was looking at the hits that drew recent fines and comparing them with nonpenalized ones. “What we are looking at right now is this issue of whether or not the impositions of fines are consistent with the rules and whether it’s proportional to the conduct,” he said. “We will fight any appearance that a player has been unfairly targeted or singled out.”

The N.F.L. can fine Harrison all it wants, but he has become the symbol of the N.F.L.’s hard decisions of the future.

E-mail: wcr@nytimes.com

A version of this article appears in print on December 4, 2010, on page D2 of the New York edition with the headline: Some Players See Hypocrisy, Not Dirty Hits. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe